The Hot List 2013

The NoMad Hotel, New York

It's designed by one of France's finest, Jacques Garcia,
but NoMad feels right at home in its recently acronymed Manhattan
neighbourhood (NoMad stands for North of Madison Square Park,
formerly the humble Garment District). The Beaux Arts building's
interiors give it a Downtown, boho-luxe vibe reminiscent of the
Gramercy Park Hotel, The Bowery and The Greenwich: barely-there
lighting, elaborate tiled floors, rug-lined corridors, velvet
armchairs, potted palms. Garcia dials up the glam in the library
bar and restaurant with a stone fireplace straight out of his
design for Hotel Costes and his signature red-velvet curtains. And
so he should: Daniel Humm and Will Guidara of
three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park are in charge, and it's
one of the toughest reservations in town; President Obama and
entourage have eaten here. The roast chicken for two, stuffed with
foie gras and black truffle, will ruin you for Sunday roasts
forever. Rooms are like SoHo lofts; in most, damask screens
separate bathroom areas from bedrooms, where the
just-distressed-enough leather armchairs and electric art are mere
distractions from the view: the Empire State Building is right out
the window, and been studied from the claw-foot bathtub.

Flash pointNoMad may be an awkward
slice of mid(ish)town Manhattan, but for comfort, style, food and
that view, this place puts its Downtown cousins in the shade.